I can’t wait for the month of November to come around, because that’s when Starbucks begins to feature its Peppermint Mocha Latte. I’m sure that many of you have your own favorite Starbucks coffee or Teavana tea drink, and that’s because Starbucks is the largest, and most prolific, coffeehouse chain in the world.
Most every city, town, freeway rest area, and airport has at least one, and sometimes more, Starbucks Cafes. If you miss and happen to drive past one, don’t worry, they’ll be another coming up real soon.
We all know what Starbucks is, even if we don’t drink coffee. And most of us know that Starbucks got its start in Seattle Washington USA. But what you may not know is how it got it’s name, where their very first location really was, and what unique little historical coincidence does Starbucks have with another major coffee company.
In this post I will show you a photo of where the actual “first” Starbucks site was and tell you about that very unique little historical coincidence that even the founders of Starbucks may not have known.
So while we’re waiting in line for our coffee let me give you a short synopsis of Starbucks’ history.
It’s all about the name
The story of Starbucks begins with three University of San Francisco schoolmates: Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker. Although after graduation each had gone off to different careers (Baldwin was an English teacher, Siegl a history teacher, and Bowker a writer) they stayed in touch. They had long wanted to go into business together and were looking for just that right business to go into. They became inspired by the growing number of gourmet coffees coming onto the market, especially those from a coffee roasting entrepreneur named Alfred Peet, and his Peet’s Coffee in the San Francisco. They believed that a store selling high quality coffee beans and brewing equipment was  the type of business they were looking for.

They learned the techniques of roasting and brewing coffee from the master, Peet himself. They put together a business plan, selected the city they wanted to open their store in, and where ready to go except for one thing, they didn’t have a name for their business that was a real grabber. They knew the name had to be easy to remember and able to attract the attention of consumers.
They started brainstorming for just that right name; two suggestions where, Cargo House and Pequod. None where good enough to excite them. Finally running out of ideas themselves they decided to get an opinion from someone on the outside.

Besides being a writer Gordon Bowker also owned a small adverting business with another friend, Terry Heckler. Heckler suggested that they find a name that started with the letters “s” and “t.” His theory was that names that start with those two letters sounded very powerful.
The friends had already decided to open their store in Seattle and figured that a local sounding name would be helpful. They began going through old mining maps of the Cascade Mountains looking for a name of an old mining town that started with “st”. Soon they found the town of Starbo, it was close, but no cigar.
Even though Starbo started with the right letters it didn’t have what they were looking for; however it did remind them of one of their other names, Pequod. Pequod was the name of the fictional whaling ship in Herman Melville’s classic Moby-Dick, and the ships first mate was named, Starbuck. Bingo! It started with the right letters, was unique, easy to remember, and very powerful sounding. So the name for their new coffee company would be, Starbucks.
Where was the “original” Starbucks location?

Near the Seattle waterfront they selected a corner storefront at 2000 Western Avenue; adjacent to Pike Place Street and its popular Pike Place Market. On March 31, 1971 the three friends finally fulfilled their dream and opened a business together.
This first Starbucks only sold roasted coffee beans and coffee brewing equipment, the only brewed coffee they served was as free samples to showcase their different coffee blends. But over time, due to customer requests, they started to add brewed coffee for sale, it was then that Starbucks became more of a coffee café instead of just a coffee bean store.

In 1976 they moved their coffee café down the street to 1912 Pike Place, where it still operates today.

To most visitors seeking the “original” first Starbucks they think it’s this Pike Place location, but in reality you need to walk a half block back from that location to where Pike Place intersects with Western Avenue and Virginia Street; it’s there at that corner, now occupied by another restaurant, that Starbucks began in March of 1971.

That assumed first location on Pike Place has an incredibly long line, all the time. So if you want a Starbucks coffee, and don’t want to stand in that very, very long line, may I suggest that you walk a block in the other direction and around the corner to where Pike Place meets 1st Avenue, there you’ll find a Starbucks with a much shorter line.
In 1984 the three friends bought out their old mentor’s Peet’s Coffee, and in 1987 the three founders sold their interests in Starbucks to one of their former managers, Howard Schultz, and in June of 1992 Starbucks went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Starbucks has also acquired Teavana teas, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Torefaziona Italia, Diedrich Coffee, and its Coffee People brand.
Today Starbucks has over 23,768 locations, and growing, worldwide. They’ve expanded their café’s offerings to include specialty food items and a wide range of hot and cold specialty coffee and tea drinks.
From three friends that wanted to go into business together, to finding the right name, the Starbucks Coffee Company is now the largest coffeehouse chain in the world, with revenues of over nineteen billions dollars.
What do Starbucks, Folgers Coffee and Nantucket Island, Massachusetts have in common?

To answer that question we need to go back to when those three founders were trying to come up with a name for their company. They chose the name of the first mate of the Whaling ship in Moby-Dick because it started with an “st” and sounded strong. But what they most likely didn’t realize is that Melville’s novel was based on the true story of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, and its misadventure with a giant white Sperm whale. But what’s even more interesting is that Melville used the names of real Nantucket families in his story. One of those families used by Melville was of one of the original investors in the purchasing of Nantucket from the Indians, Starbuck.
Now here’s that unbelievable historical coincidence, another one of those Nantucket founding families was Folger. Yes, this is the same family whose descendants would move to San Francisco and start Folgers Coffee.

Two Nantucket families , both connected to coffee.